Wednesday, June 6, 2018

It’s Not Just the Neo-Cossacks: Putin’s Thugs Include Broad Spectrum of Groups

Paul
Goble

Staunton, June 6 – Ever since people
the media identified as Cossacks attacked opposition demonstrators in early
May, many in Russia and the West have made two fundamental mistakes about those
informal groups that have been involved in attacks on the opposition.

On the one hand, many assume that
the Cossacks are the main group involved. That is not the case. Instead, they
are one of a large number of groups.And
on the other, many think that they are operating independently and on their
own. In fact, they are controlled and directed by the Kremlin and the FSB.

But there is now a group documenting
this broader phenomenon and its direction. A group of civic activists has
formed a Telegram channel entitled “Data Base: Provocators, Strikebreakers, and
Hirelings” (t.me/bewareofthem). One of the
organizers, Anton Gromov, spoke with Roman Popkov of MBK Media (mbk.media/suzhet/opportunisty-ili-idejno/).

In addition to “Cossacks,” Gromov
says, this category of organizations include Donbass and Syrian veterans,
Anti-Maidan activists, and members of SERB and NOD, as well as other smaller
and less well-known groups, all of whom are being “coordinated” by the Center E
and the FSB both directly and indirectly.

Gromov says that he insists that the
word “Cossacks” when used for these people should be put in quotes “because
they do not have any relation to genuine Cossacks. As is well-known, in Soviet
times, a policy of de-Cossackization was carried out, and it in fact had the
form of ethnocide.”

“All these people who present
themselves now as being Cossacks are really acting a part, mercenaries and
opportunists” whom the Putin regime is all too pleased to make use of. Real
Cossacks don’t want to have anything to do with such people. One of their
number, Mikhail Popov, even works for the project.

Overall control of these various groups
comes from the Presidential Administration. More strategic guidance is provided
by Center E and the FSB. And tactical direction, Gromov suggests, is provided
by the law enforcement organs who seek to use these groups against protesters.

“All this Chekist-KGB system … is
simply a ‘hybrid’” one; in fact, “this is a good term, Gromov says. “They try
to create the illusion that these structures are independent, semi-independent,
and autonomous.But in fact, [all these
various groups from Orthodox fundamentalists to ‘neo-Cossacks to Wagner] are
all part of one whole, one system.”

“There are people who assure us that
Putin doesn’t know about all this; but he of course knows all of this perfectly
well,” Gromov says. We are moving toward “the establishment of ‘death squadrons’
in Russia;” and those who think that the regime will stop with people who use
whips are deeply mistaken.”

“Oneneed only remember the
experience of Ukraine when such people, coming out into the streets transformed
the cities of the Donbass into hell and a branch of North Korea,” the analyst
continues. “The same thing can happen in Russia easily enough. And it will if
the powers understand that there is no chance to hold power by buying loyalty
via economic means.”

But what is especially worrisome,
Gromov says, is that these groups have an ideology and therefore they will act
without being paid as much as many may think is necessary.“They are already fanatics. Many of them are
Nazis or former Nazis” who present themselves as Eurasians.

“By the way,” Gromov says, “the
so-called ‘Soviet patriots’ however strange this may seem are most humanistic
than this public.” As bad as the former were and are, these people are much
worse and may do much worse unless they are monitored, countered and then
stopped in their tracks.

Not surprisingly, the analyst continues,
his group is being attacked by those who back these groups, an indication that
it is doing the right thing. But it is likely that the group will not be able
to remain physically in Russia. Nonetheless, it has big plans that extend far
beyond compiling a list documenting actions.

Gromov says he hopes to create an
analytic center and prepare reports so as to be able to get involved in the
defense of human rights, “to support tose suffering and to call attention to
the executors and organizers of the terror” now taking place in Putin’s Russia.